Film
Bridget Jones's Baby
- Romantic comedy
- Light-hearted
Bridget Jones returns in her forties, navigating single life, career ambitions, and an unexpected pregnancy with uncertain paternity. It's warm romantic comedy with genuine heart—messier and more mature than its predecessor, concerned less with landing a man than with figuring out who you are. For anyone who loved the first film or enjoys character-driven rom-coms about women in their later years.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you love a warm, sharp romantic comedy where the heartbreak feels real but the jokes land hardest when a character is mortified in public, and you don't mind a grown-up heroine who is a glorious mess.
Skip it if you find the central romantic setup a stretch, or the slapstick and bawdy set-pieces wear thin across its two-hour running time.
What it asks of you: It runs just over two hours in brisk bursts of comic scenes, with emotional beats arriving quickly rather than lingering, so it wants your attention on the banter over quiet stillness.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Mamma Mia!2008
Pure joy disguised as a story. Set on a Greek island, built around ABBA songs, and utterly uninterested in being cool. It celebrates female friendship, mother-daughter bonds, and the messiness of real love with infectious charm.
But It's broad, campy, and occasionally comes perilously close to naff. If you need your romance grounded in realism, this will feel airborne.

About a Boy2002
A man in his thirties learns to grow up through friendship with a lonely twelve-year-old boy. Sharp, funny, and unexpectedly tender, with a real sense that nobody in this story is quite where they thought they'd be.
But The comedy hinges partly on wealth and social status. Some of the boy's behaviour veers into uncomfortable territory, even if the film acknowledges it.

The Intern2015
Nancy Meyers directs Robert De Niro as a seventy-year-old widower who interns at an e-commerce company run by Anne Hathaway. It's genuinely interested in aging, work, and the unexpected friendships that prop us up.
But Plot-wise, it's predictable and slight. The film's real estate and wardrobes are aggressively aspirational, which makes it feel like a long commercial for a lifestyle.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bridget Jones's Baby
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Fleabag2016
Both use romantic and sexual confusion as the scaffolding for deeper stories about identity and self-knowledge, and both find real humour in the messiness of wanting multiple things at once.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge breaks every rule of comedy by making her protagonist unreliable, selfish, and irresistible. It's about family, sex, love, and the ways we hide—and it's also hilarious, which makes it devastating.
But The main character is genuinely unlikeable in stretches. If you need to feel good about the people on screen, this will frustrate you. It also requires you to read subtext and silences.

More like this (7)
Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011
An ensemble romantic comedy about marriage, infidelity, and rediscovery. Smartly written, genuinely funny, and interested in the fact that love is complicated at every age and stage.
But It's a bit engineered—every plot thread resolves too neatly, and the film occasionally feels like it's checking boxes rather than discovering them.

Four Rooms1995
Ensemble cast, New Year's Eve in a hotel, and a script by Tarantino and Cormac McCarthy. It captures that particular adult chaos of wanting to celebrate, connect, and escape all at once.
But It's wildly uneven in tone and execution. Some bits sing; others misfire completely. It feels like the project it was: a high-concept experiment that didn't quite land.

The Proposal2009
Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock spark genuine chemistry. It's a straightforward romantic comedy that knows exactly what it is: predictable, charming, and genuinely funny about the mechanics of pretending.
But The plot is boilerplate. It relies heavily on physical comedy and Bullock's likability, which can feel slight if you're looking for anything narratively surprising.

Working Girl1988
Melanie Griffith's secretary outsmarts her way into the corner office in 1980s Manhattan. It's a comedy about ambition, class, and female solidarity that still feels fresh and genuinely rooting for its heroine.
But It's a product of its era—the fashion and some attitudes date it notably. The romance subplot, while charming, sits uneasily with the film's feminist underpinnings.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife2021
A legacy sequel that actually respects its characters' aging and passes the torch with warmth. It's funny, nostalgic without being cynical, and genuinely interested in how life changes across generations.
But If you have no attachment to the original films, much of the emotional weight will feel unearned. The humour also skews toward references rather than originality.

The First Wives Club1996
Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Barbara Streisand as women betrayed by their husbands who band together for revenge. Cathartic, funny, and defiantly unapologetic about aging women being fabulous.
But It's shrill in stretches and the vengeance plot is thin. The film occasionally substitutes anger for humour, which can feel exhausting rather than fun.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always2020
Both centre on a woman making a major life decision without permission or apology, and both understand that such moments—even when complicated—can be profound and clarifying rather than shameful.
Two teenage girls take a road trip to New York for an abortion. It's quiet, observational cinema that treats its subject with absolute dignity and finds profound tenderness in friendship and choice. Formally beautiful and morally uncomplicated.
But It's a slow, deliberately paced film about a topic that makes many uncomfortable. There's no dramatic catharsis or tidy resolution. It can feel almost uncomfortably intimate.

People
Cast
Renée ZellwegerBridget
Colin FirthMark
Patrick DempseyJack
Gemma JonesMum
Emma ThompsonDr Rawlings
Sally PhillipsShazzer
James CallisTom
Sarah SolemaniMiranda
Neil PearsonRichard Finch
Kate O'FlynnAlice
Directing
- Sharon MaguireDirector
- James ManningSecond Assistant Director
Writing
- Helen FieldingCharacters
- Helen FieldingOriginal Story
- Dan MazerScreenplay
- Emma ThompsonScreenplay
- Helen FieldingScreenplay
Production
- Nina GoldCasting
- Jane RobertsonCo-Producer
- Amelia GrangerExecutive Producer
- Helen FieldingExecutive Producer
- Liza ChasinExecutive Producer
- Debra HaywardProducer
- Eric FellnerProducer
- Tim BevanProducer
- Bonnie-Chance RobertsProducer's Assistant